Significant Anomaly
by mamblymoo
Summary: Not you again!" The Doctor doesn't give second chances, or fifths, but it's difficult when you keep running into the same person over and over again. She's not even following him, in fact she runs in the other direction every time she sees him.
1. 1 The Temperature Rises

**Chapter 1 - The Temperature Rises**

The thing about airports, or space stations for that matter, was the anonymity. You could be anyone, or no-one. Smith. Alpha. Nemo. You could drift in or out without being noticed. After all, drifting in and out was exactly what everybody else was doing.

Airports had something that space stations lacked though. At least space stations like this one. Geographical ambiguity. Or more precisely, astronomical. Back in those old Earth One 20th century airports you could have been anywhere: India, France, Scotland, Australia. When you stepped out of those doors you could be anyone, do anything. They felt like neutral territory. The problem with 47th century space stations was all the glass. Aside from the galvanized metal and plastopolygold decoration, there were too many transparent surfaces. All you had to do was turn your head too far in any direction and you'd see you were in the Crab Nebula and the whole game was spoiled. Yes it was pretty, and swirly. Yes it inspired some very beautiful poetry. But where was the mystery, the intrigue?

To make matters worse, it was really hot in here.

"Customer announcement," a metallic, slighty Brummie accent clanged overhead, "we regret to inform you that due to essential maintenance works on the principal ventilation, we are using the emergency air supply. As this supply is not refrigerated, we are having to source alternative cooling strategies. We apologise for the inconvenience, and thank you for your understanding."

That explained it. Oh the joys of low grade recycled air.

Loosening his tie, the Doctor wandered over to the benches by Arrivals, sitting himself down to watch. People, as is usual in Arrivals, were arriving. From all over space people were coming home or beginning a new adventure. It felt good to see them. Parents and children. Siblings. Lovers. Friends. People reconnecting. Not just human, but Pacifist Chelonian, Hath and even some off-duty Judoon. In a life with so many goodbyes…well…it was nice to see a few hellos from time to time.

The only problem, he thought, as he watched the umpteenth couple snogging as if their lives depended on it, was that it got a bit samey. It felt, in the way it only could if you'd recently lost…well it felt a little bit like they were rubbing his nose in it.

This heat was getting unbearable, surely they should be doing something about it? He remembered seeing a stand for those refrigerated gel pots over in Departures, and headed back. He bought blue. He had a particular fondness for blue. Using the miniature spade he found in the top of the lid he scooped up a minute mouthful and plopped it onto his tongue. Disappointing. Half jelly, half ice pop, and not really as good as either. Refreshing, but then a dip in a polluted river could be refreshing on a cold day, it didn't mean you wanted one. He moved towards a group of people clustering around a vent, hands buried deep in his suit pockets, when it occurred to him that it wasn't just the heat that was getting to him.

"There's something in the air." He murmured, sniffing deeply. "An energy trace…Strange, but strangely familiar." He licked his lips, unaware that he was being stared at. "But where's it coming from?" He leant forward, sniffing at the vent. "Recycled…the vents aren't the source." He spun on his heels, searching the room, fixing on the point of origin. "Well, well, well." He muttered, heading over to the window.

***

The screenpapers these days were utterly incomprehensible.

_MULDOON AND REVERENCE COMMENCE TALKS_

_Commander Poon Muldoon is to convene with The Mighty Reverence Glubula Gubul for urgent Peace talks regarding the Third Wave frequency regulations of Kofornil Alpha Sept... _

How were you supposed to know what was going on when you didn't recognise any of the names? Must have been a regional thing. Stupid Crab Nebula. At the bottom of the page was an advert which, at the moment she looked at it, expanded to fill the whole page.

_Get away from it all this Vacational Season!_

She smirked. It might have been reading her mind. In fact…her eyes widened…it probably was.

"You again! I might have known."

The voice froze her to her seat. Her eyes fixed blankly to the screenpaper, unaware of its changing message.

_Relive the memories in the Milky Way._

Her fingers gripped the paper so hard that it began to crackle angrily.

The voice continued, sitting down beside her. "Everywhere I go! Well not everywhere, but a significant enough portion of the time for it to be more than a co-incidence, you keep turning up! That cut's healed well by the way."

She didn't look at him, continued to stare at the fizzing paper. "Please go away." She muttered, fearfully. "Please just leave me alone before something happens."

"That's just it, isn't it?" The Doctor leant back in his seat, looking up at the ceiling. "Every time I run into you something seems to be going on."

Now she looked at him, her dark eyes flashing angrily. "Every time you see me? You mean every time I see you! Everywhere you are things go wrong and people get hurt! You seem to enjoy it."

"Enjoy it? Look here I'm the one trying to save everyone." He replied angrily, the air thick with the rising heat, stale. "And anyway, if I remember rightly the only person laughing on that boat was you!"

"What boat?" He watched her tucking a strand of hair behind her ear, her eyes flashing with fear and anger. "You're mental, and I just want you to leave me alone before I end up being the one that gets hurt!"

As the Doctor opened his mouth to speak he was interrupted by a strange noise. A man pushing a cleaning trolley had stumbled, hand at his throat. The Doctor sprang to his feet. "He's choking!" He shouted, turning back to look at the girl. "Get some help!" But the girl wasn't looking at him any more, she was looking to her left. He followed her eyes, and saw suddenly, as she did, that the man was not alone. Throughout the Terminal, people were stopping, coughing and spluttering, hyperventilating, collapsing. The girl got to her feet.

"What the hell is happening?" She rounded on the Doctor, panting. "What did you do?"

"What did I do?" The Doctor replied angrily. "Why aren't you choking like everyone else?"

The speakers clanged into life. "Customer announcement. We regret to inform you that our emergency air supply has failed, and that we are unable to reconnect our primary source because of its being currently under maintenance. We apologise for the resulting lack of oxygen to those who require it, and to those who do not require it, we apologise for the inconvenience of stepping over your fellow...err…ex-passengers. Thank you for your understanding."

"Fantastic!" The Doctor shouted at the speakers. "Bloody fantastic! They're all going to die and you thank them for their understanding?" He looked down at the man, shaking his head. He turned to see the girl moving slowly towards the Departure gate. He followed. "Don't think you're getting away from me young lady!" He grabbed her arm. "How the hell are you still breathing?" He pulled her round to face him, and was shocked as she nearly fell onto him. He watched, stunned, as she gasped for breath, sinking to her knees, eyes going out of focus.

"No!" He gripped her shoulders tightly. "No not you! You're not getting away like that!" But it was too late, her dead weight dragged them both to the floor, her face passing whiteness to a point where it was almost blue, her pupils dilating. Around him the oxygen independent life forms moved horrorstruck as their human companions lay dying, helpless to help lovers and friends. He had something they didn't however. He looked down at her, her innocent pale face and blueing lips. "Come on respiratory bypass." Tilting her head back and pinching her nose he sealed his lips over her own. If he could only keep her alive for as long as it took them to restore the air supply. Forcing his bypass to work overtime he converted stores of redundant compounds to release their oxygen which he forced out through his screaming lungs in five deep breaths. "Come on!" He shouted, at himself or her he wasn't sure as he threw off his jacket, one hand scrabbling to find her pulse. Nothing. Feeling her ribcage through her top, which if he'd had time to observe, he'd have noticed was decidedly similar to that being worn by the cleaning man, he placed his hands on top on each other over her heart and began to compress. "One. Two. Three. Four." All the way through to twenty before he returned to give her more oxygen. Minutes passed. Eventually he felt a hand on his shoulder.

"It's over, sir. Let her rest. The air isn't coming back." The words came from a tall, vivid green shelled Chelonian, surrounded by a group of smaller followers.

"No! I have to know, she can't just." Gently, clawed hands lifted him to his feet. "I'm the Doctor! I have to save her!" He struggled to remove himself from their grip. "I have to know what she is! She's not human!"

"Whatever she is," the Chelonian said, quietly, "she has died like one."

Suddenly, at their feet the girl began to cough, heaving deep breaths into her lungs as her eyes opened.

"I told you." The Doctor said, hiding his own shock. "Didn't I tell you?"

The girl scrambled into a sitting position, looking up at him in terror before turning her eyes to something touching her leg, the body of a middle-aged woman. She screamed, jumping to her feet, seeing the corpses littering the floor, stared at by the handful of people still standing. "What have you done?" She grabbed the Doctor by the collar as he was released by the Chelonian and his assistants. "What did you do?"

The lead Chelonian spoke. "As the Great Turtle is my witness, my lady, this being has saved your life. Even I, who have witnessed the miraculous gifts of our mighty shelled Creator, must confess myself astonished."

She stared at the long-limbed reptile, dumb-founded, panting in fear and panic. "What do you mean?"

The Doctor rolled his eyes. "There's no oxygen in the air. You can stop pretending to breathe."

She laughed sarcastically, paused, tried not breathing, and then laughed again. "You're mental." She said, and then turned on her tail and ran.

"Oh no you don't!" The Doctor hared after her.


	2. 2 Wrong Place, Wrong Time

**Chapter 2 - Wrong Place, Wrong Time**

Running as fast as she could, the girl found a door in the back of the Departure lounge that led to some stairs. What did he mean there was no oxygen? Must have been trying to confuse her, trick her somehow. All those people. That Doctor seemed to bring more death than healing if you asked her, and now he was after her. Two flights down she heard the door swinging open above her, and he entered the staircase, following the sound of her descending feet. Why was he following her? Was it not enough for him that everyone else was dead? Had he killed them trying to kill her? One thing was for certain, she was not about to let him get her, and she would fight him with every fibre she had.

No more stairs. She took the door and found herself in the dark, a poorly lit series of corridors, hot and arid. Glancing to her left and right she saw what she thought was movement, and chose instead to head forward into a corridor lit only with dim red light. She walked quickly, but as she heard the door opening behind her broke into a run again, which probably gave her away. She might have been more nimble than him in the Departure lounge getting over the bodies of all his victims, but she could never outrun him on the straight. Her only hope was to hide.

Ahead of her a brighter area loomed, an intersection between corridors, she slowed, not wanting to run into anybody's path, and paused to look down the left hand turning. Nothing. She sighed in relief, and then turned to the right.

Without thinking she turned on the spot and ran back the way she had come, only within seconds to be faced with the Doctor running straight at her. Turning back again she decided to risk crossing the path of those…rather than…too late.

He caught her grabbing her by her arms and turning her to face him. "Look!" He started, but got no further, as the sound of tramping boots rang into his ears. They looked to the intersection, saw a group of guards pass. Seeing them again, knowing that she hadn't been mistaken, gripped her stomach like a vice, and she tried to escape. Horrorstruck, the Doctor pushed them out of sight into a doorway, hands pinning her arms to her sides.

"Don't try to run." He hissed. "Not again." His mouth pressed close against her ear, his words spoken with hot breath. "Because whichever way you go you'll be caught, either by me or them and I guarantee you won't like either, not at all. I don't give second chances, and this technically is your fifth."

She continued to struggle, jamming her foot down on top of his, making him wince with pain as he restrained her roughly. "Stop it!"

"Drop dead!" She spat back in an angry whisper. "Let me go!"

"No." He muttered fervently. "I'm going to find out what you are if it kills me." He sniffed at the side of her neck.

"I'm human!" She exclaimed, her voice rising angrily. "Pervert!"

The Doctor ignored her. "You're no more human than I am." His eyes scanned her face. "The energy coming off you is phenomenal…Familiar and yet… like it's being masked by some other signal. If I could just…" He leant forward and ran his tongue up the bridge of her nose.

Without a second thought she kneed him in the groin. Human or not there must have been something there as he doubled over in pain, allowing her to make a break for it, pelting back down the corridor. Before she reached the end the tramp of more boots halted her, and she ducked into a recess, followed quickly by the Doctor.

"Please don't do that again." He asked, pain evident in his voice. They watched the guards from the shadows. "Now will you believe me? You'll never escape."

"They're horrible." She murmured, shaking her head in disbelief. "What are they?"

The Doctor shook his head. "I'm not exactly sure. I mean…I've seen similar things. The symbol on their chests…"

"The one written in…"

"Yes. It's a symbol in a language from a nearby planet…"

"Kolfornil Alpha Sept?"

"Yes. How did you?"

"It was in the 'paper." She said quickly, as the squad finished filing past.

"It means 'Sisterhood'." He replied.

"That would explain why they're all girls."

"Yes, but it's a funny word. Also means 'Serenity'."

She had to work hard to stop herself from laughing in fear. "There's nothing serene about them."

"No. Whatever you may think of me, you've got to realise that you are safer with me than them."

"At least they haven't been chasing me!" She hissed, although she had to admit that he seemed to be right.

"Look, what I did up there saved your life. You had no pulse. I'm not trying to hurt you. I just want to know what you are."

The door from the stairs they had come down opened and a small group of the guards, of the _women_ entered. They were approached from the left hand corridor by another woman, who seemed to be of higher status. They spoke together in a language that the girl didn't understand, their voices low and strangely resonant, but the Doctor seemed to be listening.

"What are they saying?" She hissed at him.

"They're talking about putting the air back on."

"Why? Everyone is already dead."

"Not everyone, they're worried that if they leave it too long the Judoon will start to suffer." He saw her confusion. "The Rhino-heads. They have big lungs, can hold their breath for a long time, but not too long." He listened. "Not that it's been a long time but…royalty?"

She waited for him to say more, but suddenly she heard the high-status guard say something.

"Did she say Glubula Gubul?" She whispered. The Doctor nodded. "He was in the paper, something about peace talks with someone called Poon Muldoon."

"Commander Poon Muldoon?" The excitement was evident even in his whisper. "The Judoon Chief…well…Chief Cop?"

"I guess so. Who's Glubula Gubul?"

"I don't know…Sounds kind of…bubbly." His eyes lit up. "There were Hath. Gubul must be the Hath Royal."

"His most Reverence." She said, attempting to sound knowledgeable.

He nodded, although he was clearly talking more to himself than to her. "And those Chelonians can't be a coincidence. Look like the Ninja Turtles, act like the Dalai Lama. Must be mediating at the talks. It all makes sense."

"What does?" It certainly didn't to her.

"This is a hostage situation."

Eventually the group and the Leader went their separate ways down the left and right corridor, leaving a strange smell, which was dispelled almost instantly as, with a corridor-quaking rumble, the vents began pouring out oxygenated air. The Doctor inhaled deeply. "Thank goodness for that. Wasn't sure how much longer I could hold out without breathing."

She frowned at him. "But you must have been breathing. I don't understand."

"Well if you were it certainly wasn't oxygen." He ran a hand through his hair, making it stick up in all directions. "What are you?"

"I keep telling you I'm human." She said, exasperated.

"And I can promise you you're not." He said, almost sadly. "Whatever you may think. If I only knew just what you were I'd say you were lying, but as it is." He looked at her. "Maybe you don't. Maybe you genuinely believe…"

"Shut up!" She said, unable to restrain her voice. "You know nothing about me. I am a human. I know it."

"Can you prove it?" He asked quietly.

"Prove it? What do you want me to do?" She looked at him in disgust, her eyes flicking to where they'd seen the guards. "Bleed?"

He shook his head. "If you can't prove it then it's faith you're going on. Belief." He stepped towards her. "And belief is so often misplaced."

She backed away. "All I want to do is get out of here."

"You can't. This is a hostage situation. People are already dead. Unless they're negotiated with everyone on this ship will be killed." He leant back against the wall. "I need to find out more about them. Infiltrate. Can't just blunder in." He put his head on one side. "What I need." He eyed her in a way that made her, if possible, even more nervous. "Is something they'll find really confusing."


End file.
